Coming up, Angela Merkel, more popular than ever going into sundays general election. Could she have the spine to reform . Depends on how the other parties fare, what conoco volition they have, energy prices, and reforming europe. We will be also asking our panel how i got to be the unveiling of a videogame to works the release of any tv show. How grand theft auto in its likes stole the show of the World Entertainment industry. Well also be checking with James Creedon in his media watch segment. But start with the newsroom and say hello to karen. Damascus has handed over details of its chemical weapons to the haguebased chemicals regulator. The president of america and iran may meet next week for the first time. This as a rain is on course to develop a nuclear bomb. And Tropical Storm and well and hurricane and Tropical Storm manuel and hurricane ingrid continued to plague mexico. Hello, live from paris, i am karen roberts. A short while ago, damascus handed over the chemical weapons details to the haguebased chemical weapons regulator. Syria is believed to have 100 metric tons of the chemical toxins and has agreed to destroy them. The organization of prohibition of chemical weapons expects more information in the coming days. Al qaedalinked fighters and a rival Syrian Rebel Group declared a truce friday after two days of clashes in which the militant islamists were fighting. Joining me in the studio is Douglas Herbert of International Affairs editor to talk more about the political infighting. This must be everyones worst fear. And it is not political infighting, they are just fighting. The west has been looking at this conflict, and the worst feared scenario has been the reason they have not been stepping up support to the rebels in the form of lethal arms, heavier weapons. This fear that whatever they would give to the moderate opposition fighters would end up in the hands of more extremist hardline islamists, the jihadists. This fear seems to be panning out on the battlefield. What we had was taken the first time, the Syrian National coalition, the umbrella Opposition Group pointing the finger directly at extremists, saying they are condemning them, denouncing them, the Al Qaeda Linked groups on the battlefield that are preventing the opposition fighters from being able to unify around a shared vision of serious future. We have shaping up, not really shaping up, this has been happening the past weeks and months as more and more foreign fighters have poured into syria, but you have mainstream fighters, mainstream rebel fighters, and yes, there are quite a few. The people the wests label the moderates up against differing agendas, much more extremist groups. You have some nationalists, syrianbased groups that want to overthrow assad regime, perhaps impose sharia law within syria. Then you have the global groups. The Al Qaeda Linked groups, the hardline jihadists who want an islamic caliphate across a broader region. You have the clashing agendas over how to topple assad, whether to topple assad, and in many cases the regime is chuckling on the side because there is a view among a lot of the people within the circle they only benefit from this because this sort of bears out what their official line has been all along, that these are not rebel fighters, these are terrorists. And a smorgasbord of different groups really does play into russias and assads hands, doesnt it . Pressure all along has basically been a staunch ally of assad regime russia all along has basically been a staunch ally of the arres assad regime echoing the line out of damascus that these rebels are nothing more than terrorists. Security officials in damascus basically are saying all of this infighting that they are seeing among groups of they call the terrorists is really going to diminish their numbers. Some people have speculated the regime itself is actually using, coopting a lot of the extreme rebel groups. It is very confusing who was fighting whom and where. What we can say with certainty today and what is probably playing into russias hands and assads hands, it is not just the rebel groups facing off against the regime, they are facing off against each other, and the more they do that, the more that it plays into the hands of assad regime. Thank you, Douglas Herbert, on the political infighting in syria. The president s of america and every and may meet briefly next week for the first time. It would mark a symbolic but significant step towards easing their countrys tense relationship. At the heart of the u. S. Iran impasse is the yearlong dispute over the nuclear program. Iran is on course to develop a nuclear bomb within six months and time as run out for further negotiations, according to a senior israeli minister. Our correspondent in jerusalem explains. The new irani and president s charm official Charm Offensive is falling on deaf ears, the israelis reacting following the interview that he granted an American Network in which the new irani and president said his country is not seeking a nuclear bomb, but his people have arrived to Nuclear Energy for civilian purposes. The israeli premier calls those words sugarcoated, deceptive, calling on the International Community not to release its pressure over tehran. He says they are just words and he wants to see action, accusing iran as being a wolf posing as a sheep. The israeli Prime Minister wants to see for things happen. He wants the cessation of all the uranium and its funny him the uranium and plutonium enrichment, he wants the closure of the nuclear facility, and he wants all uranium to be taken out of iran. Before those things happen, he will keep calling on the International Community to intensify its pressure over you ran over iran. There has been a spat between venezuela and the u. S. Over airspace. Venezuela has explained that washington barred their president from flying through u. S. Airspace and stopped a general from a company him to the united nations. The foreign minister said prohibiting the flight schedule to pass over puerto rico friday amounted to aggression. The United States said today it has granted access to its airspace, so venezuelas president can make it we can trip to china. Caracas insist that permission was denied. Mexico continues to be plagued with floods as Tropical Storm manuel gain strength and hit land. Coupled with hurricane ingrid, the weather has killed 97 people, 15 bodies recovered after a landslide hit near the pacific coast. Almost 70 residents are still missing. Joining us from mexico city is our correspondent. Can you update us on the casualty figures there . The federal government has still cap the figure of 97 confirmed dead. This is almost certainly going to rise, unfortunately. As you mentioned, 70 people disappeared, mostly in this community, a village that has been almost completely buried by landslides. Houses completely covered in debris and rubble. It is a very difficult for the residents living in those houses. Another thing is many communities have been really cut off during the whole week. We dont have much information about what has happened in many villages in the mountains, many villagers who we have almost no news. More bad news almost certain to come, with difficult weather conditions that could be causing more landslides and floods. With the difficult weather conditions, the communities cut off, how was the rescue operation handling the capacity of both the storm and hurricane . It has been very difficult. There have been various rescue missions, helicopters going to these mountains and ferrying people out. We had news last night that a black hawk helicopter has gone missing in a rescue effort. We still have no contact with them. Concern there. Very difficult conditions, the roads flooded, the airport flooded. About 10,000 people were airlifted out of the city. Within the last halfhour hour, they just reopen the road with repairs. Fingers crossed the repairs will hold and people will be up to get out of the city and to safety. Ok, thank you very much for that. That was a report from mexico city. That is it for me. Now we will hand it over to francois, who is standing by. It is time for the world this week. Vivian of time magazine, how are you . Very good. Also with us, craig. A french 24hour news channel, thank you for being with us. My pleasure. And a freelance reporter. Join the conversation on facebook and twitter, twtw. I just heard you speak german. We have a cartoon that we want to show and we need some help translating it. There is Angela Merkel. Has she hypnotized the germans . Her popularity is 70 . People like her, and it is understandable from the inside. From the outside, there is the thought that it is madame austerity, but from the inside she is called mommy. People feel that she defends the interests of germany. We have heard the slogan, mommy gets it done. At a rally this friday in berlin, she is now in munich, the runup to sundays general election. Angela merkel, who in her third run for chancellor, begins hammering home the message she is a safe pair of hands. I want to continue to serve the german people. The more that you vote for me, the stronger i will be to defend our policies on the european stage and even on the world stage. Please vote with both your ballots on sunday so that we can put good policies in place for your families and friends. You have been following Angela Merkel. His kind of steady, safe pair of hands, is that which he is like up close . Well, yes. She does seem the ultimate manager, if you like, but like a lot of managers, and may be you will have thoughts about this, she has very little definable program that you can latch onto. It is not like obama. She will not come out and say yes we can and try some rallying impassioned slogan. She has been more of somebody in germany, as they put it, she has been like the captain of a ship trying not to crash against the rocks. This has been heard through the years through the euro crisis. It does not make for a very interesting leader, and in terms of hypnotizing, they might feel complacently sleepwalking to the polls, perhaps. My sense is she is a scientist, a trained scientist. That makes her approach scientific. If she has a big problem, she cuts it into smaller problems and she does step i step, step bystep. It is a policy of smaller steps. It takes a long time for her to make a quick decision. For only quick decision is when she changed her mind about germany and look their power and Nuclear Power after fukushima. People call her optimistic because she is not ideological. She knows when the Public Opinion changes and she knows how to adapt, and that is why she is still in power after eight years and does not have to fear to be thrown out by anybody. She does not like surprises. Last weekends local elections in bavaria point to with the polls have consistently shown, as she may have one sunday, not because of her own party, they are doing fine, but the collapse of Angela Merkels current coalition, the ftp. Below five percent. That is because in germany you vote twice, once for your local candidate, the second ballot for a party. Terry, what are the french rooting for . What is in frances interests, the same coalition or a different one . Angela merkel will be back. The question they are asking, which Angela Merkel will be back and what does that tell us about what kind of partner we will have . They are very hesitant as to which combination will be best for them. They tend to think it does not really matter that much. What matters most is she will have the election behind her and she will not be running anymore. That has made some european discussions difficult. It has made discussions with her about syria difficult. Never the combination in the next few weeks, they expect these discussions will become easier because the election will be behind. She will have some time on her hands, she will have more room for maneuver. I dont think she will change about syria because germany in general is very reluctant in terms of foreign policy, especially talking about military intervention. Even after the elections, that will change. Let me give an example. Dont expect come monday morning Angela Merkel will go on television and say we are going to war. They know that is not going to happen. What for example, she gave france and the United States a hard time back in st. Petersburg. At that time, the United States was pushing for, the g 20 was pushing for as many countries as possible to sign the declaration that basically was supporting what they were doing, if not calling for military action. She did not sign that piece of paper. She tried to convince other countries, other European Countries not to sign. They expect next week or in the coming weeks she wont be as adamant. She will be more lowprofile, but we know with the campaign and the social democrats, there may be a grand coalition with christian democrats and the social democrats. You are saying she does not care whether or not that happens . Not saying she does not care, it is that it wont make much of a difference. The best thing about the german election is it is going to deplete the ranks of the Unicorn Party, which i think is a winwin for all of europe. Merkel is the de facto leader of europe. She is going to win. She has the percentages behind her, the voters behind her. But the issue that nobody wants to seem to talk about that is going to come up is the cost of german energy. There is a crisis in germany right now. It is a very big crisis. It is called energy poverty. If you look at germanys own numbers, to keep the Unicorn Party happy, they will have to spend close to 740 billion, more than the european bailout, to make the Unicorn Party dreams come true. Their coal plants are still burning overtime because the wind power and all all of the other green projects are not connected to the electricity grid. You have many major german corporations getting subsidies from the government says he have to pay energy taxes. We see photographs in the newspaper and on German Television of german pensioners huddling around 25 watt lightbulbs to keep warm. I think that is a little exaggerated. Yes, there is a big problem, and yes the Power Network needs to be expanded. Most expensive in europe . But it is good. Because they try to make the switch to solar and wind. Exactly, and in france you pay so little for energy, but it is not the true price. Nobody is paying the true cost of energy in france. I think germany is still a step ahead compared to france because where are you going to get the 750 ilya and to connect all of those systems to the grade . This is the frontpage story of the wall street journal this friday. Merkel urged to act faster if reelected. That is what it says in its european edition. Merkel, safe pair of hands that is a little to say. The time to fix the problems come energy costs, gas and education around among them, is now calls for the Business Community while the economy is healthy. Now is the time to be making tough choices, especially on this issue of the high cost of energy. Merkel has achieved little to nothing of what she promised. There was no big reform. She is just now benefiting from the labor market refund that was launched. This is true, she is always calling for reforms in other countries, and also in germany there is a definite need for reform. Merkel really benefited from the luck of timing, as many leaders do. She came in right at the time that the reforms from 10 years ago began to show their benefits. Also, with the euro crisis really allowed her to emerge as a kind of leader, really, with greater stature than she intrinsically has, yet there are underlying problems. I am surprised the journal did not lad did not add to the list of woes the incredible population shrinkage, which is way worse than any other country in europe. Getting back to the energy issue, this friday the french president will unveil measures including a little increase of two percent at the pump, a carbon tax. When you see the daunting challenge being faced by germany, what are people in france saying to this . People in france are looking at their bills, and to the extent they were saying about not paying the true trice true price of energy, that is right, but that will be more difficult for them because, as you know, the program, the platform that was run on promised to bring their share of electricity made by Nuclear Energy from 75 , which is more or less what it is today, to 50 in about 10 years time. That is what the plan still is today. The president has confirmed the First Nuclear facility was going to close in 2016. Now the question is the impact on the prices and what do you replace it with . Closing Nuclear Power plants. Exactly. My point is it was easy to make the speech today, but when they get down to the nittygritty in the next few months to draft the bill, it is going to be more complicated. If you look at the speeches, it was full of promises, and i think empty promises with the carbon tax. Sarkozy, it became the same thing, never happened. He was under pressure, he had to do something to satisfy the demands of the greens. The greens are not so much an issue anymore. I think they lost a lot of credibility. But they were waiting for something to be gained. I think the issue for him was he wanted to appear as taking, sticking to his commitments. That was more born to him. Nobody cares about anything the two of you have just said. Not a soul. Thank you. They do not. What you what they care about is something you mentioned in passing, the cost of